O’Malley’s Vision for The Origins of the Wesleyan Theological Vision for Christian Globalization: A Review

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J. Steven O’Malley, The Origin of the Wesleyan Theological Vision for Christian Globalization and the Pursuit of Pentecost in Early Pietist Revivalism,Including a Translation of The Pentecost Addresses of Johann Adam Steinmetz (1689-1762) (Lexington: Emeth Press, 2020). 

Over the last few decades, scholars of evangelicalism have broadened our view of the revival’s origins. W. Reginald Ward, John Walsh, and J. Steven O’Malley have been some of the primary drivers of these efforts. Scholars such as David Hempton and Mark Noll have built on these foundations as the revival has been freed from captivity to the British Isles, and even to the narratives of later denominational histories. While scholars still debate the nature of the revival and whether or not it was a sweep (Hempton and Walsh) or more disjointed (Noll), the expanding map has made it possible for students of the revival to better understand the various streams that eventually fed into and influenced this movement of heart religion. 

Ward’s groundbreaking work, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening, published in 1992, argued that the revival was not only found in the Atlantic theater but also included – and perhaps originated in – Central Europe. The narrative wasn’t simply London, Savannah, and Northampton, it was all of this and Herrnhut, Halle, and outposts as far away as Prussia and Siberia. Ward painted the picture of a Pietistic explosion and subsequent diaspora propelled by the pressure cooker of Central European political and religious turmoil. 

What O’Malley has now provided in his most recent work with the wonderfully elongated eighteenth-century title, The Origin of the Wesleyan Theological Vision for Christian Globalization and the Pursuit of Pentecost in Early Pietist Revivalism, Including a Translation of The Pentecost Addresses of Johann Adam Steinmetz (1689-1762), is a four-part work that provides the student of evangelical history with the opportunity to see and understand the distinctive links and theological contributions of Pietist thought on the Wesleyan revival. O’Malley has accomplished this by means of introductory materials that outline the global nature of evangelicalism, his translations of Steinmetz’s Pentecost lectures together with his own annotated notes on the text, an exploration of the children’s revival of Silesia, an analysis of Pietist thought, links between revival thinkers, and finally an appendix charting the links between reformational, Pietist, and Wesleyan thinkers, highlighting the continuity of doctrinal emphases. 

At the heart of O’Malley’s work is an exploration of “the intellectual roots of the concern for globalization within Protestant Christianity” (3). He argues that the roots of this concern can be found in “the voices of praying children in Eastern Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century” (3) that, while initially focused on an impending apocalypse, produced a long-term evangelistic project “which would sweep across Europe and into North America within three decades of its origin” (5). The project was not simply evangelistic, as O’Malley shows, but rather an interconnected exchange of ideas centered on the work – or sealing – of the Holy Spirit, specifically the influence of Steinmetz on Christian David, and ultimately John Wesley. O’Malley’s interest, though, is not simply historical but rather intended to see how historic patterns can be used within emerging global evangelistic efforts today (14). 

O’Malley provides the first English translations of the nineteenth-century introduction and the eighteenth-century text of Steinmetz’s lectures. Steinmetz gave these presentations to those yearning for what Wesleyans generally term assurance or even sanctification. For Steinmetz, this is the “sealing of the Holy Spirit.” What O’Malley does in the annotations to the text is vital. He not only provides linkages between Steinmetz and later evangelical leaders, but he shows how Steinmetz diverged from Lutheranism and clarifies when Steinmetz is using the term “sealing” to describe aspects of the Christian life differentiated more clearly in other traditions. It’s clear from the text that these addresses were written for formational and evangelistic reasons. Steinmetz was not trying to write theological treatises. But it should also be remembered that Steinmetz was delivering these messages to a church community of between 40,000 to 70,000 persons. O’Malley’s claims regarding the impact of these messages is not overblown.  

O’Malley’s notes go beyond mere annotation of the text and provide political context, historical linkages, guidance to understand the scriptural allusions that permeate the text, and also – keeping with the original theme of the book – descriptions of how Steinmetz’s claims have global repercussions. This is most clearly seen when O’Malley writes: 

Here is the point of the matter: if what is being affirmed, that the Holy Spirit transforms sinners into holy vessels sealed in His Spirit, who bear witness to the atoning blood of Christ, then, the very point in the universe where heaven and earth are joined has now become the life and witness of the reborn believer. Hence, replicating this sealing work in the masses of fallen humanity becomes for Steinmetz the vehicle for growing in critical mass a new humanity which would be for his day the theological equivalence of what the Temple of Jerusalem was for Israel and the new Israel of Paul the apostle (fn. 3, 115).

This new humanity is a Spirit-transformed humanity, not a political movement. It transcends nationality and race (125).

O’Malley links Steinmetz’s addresses specifically to the outbreak of revival amongst children in Upper Silesia in 1707-08, calling it “a regenerative historical outcome” of Steinmetz’s work. It is this revival, “the first occurrence of awakening in Protestant history,” that O’Malley argues spread to Teschen and ultimately across the globe (127). It wasn’t just that the children inspired others, but that the community in which their efforts took place was “a large community of desperate orphans” in the wake of geopolitical forces, composed of “Germans, Poles, Bohemians, Czechs, Moravians, and Hungarians” who would then take this message with them (130). The revival was seen as an out-breaking of the Pentecost event of Acts 2. O’Malley claims that the children’s revival spread over the next two decades with two measured outcomes: “(1) an impetus for a globalizing Christianity, and (2) a commitment to a twofold soteriology which became the core of the evangelistic message of the Wesleys” (135). He dedicates the third section of the book to an exploration of these claims, noting that the source materials necessary for the task were simply not available until recently. 

O’Malley, echoing the work of Hindmarsh and O’Brien in other areas of the global revival, notes the emergence of evangelistic networks stemming from the children’s revival. This will be a theme throughout evangelical history, most strikingly with the Wesleyan societies. Additionally, he notes the emergence of the revival in print, a key component of the emerging global movement in all its various streams. Thus, he strengthens his argument that the children’s revival is the originating source, embodying later evangelical practices. It was also within networks of Lutherans under Hapsburg rule, reading Luther, his catechism, and his Bible, that the faith of the children was formed, despite official attempts to Catholicize them and their parents (140-154).  

In addition to what might be termed mainstream Pietism, O’Malley delves into the thought of radical Pietists, expanding the conceptual map of the movement for those new to it. This is helpful on numerous levels, but particularly because of the similarities of radicalized movements within later evangelicalism, a repercussion of a movement based on the heart and particularly concerned about the eschatological or even cosmic repercussions of revivalistic outbreaks. One particularly striking section of O’Malley’s analysis is the emergence – beginning with Cocceius – of the concept of “salvation history,” particularly a view of history that identifies the spread of the Kingdom of God by means of historical events, including the children’s revival of Silesia. O’Malley provides a detailed analysis of the diversity of Pietist thought, highlighting the work of Steinmetz, Böhme, Petersen, Poiret, and Leade, among others. What emerges is a view of a globalized and yet non-Christendom-oriented Christianity. Additionally, O’Malley outlines the distinctive links made by Pietist thought between an originally Lutheran concept of the cross and the implication of a model of history in which Pentecost is not simply an historical event but an expanding one. 

The analysis section of the book culminates in an exploration of the links between Pietism’s “two-staged soteriology” and the Wesley brothers, a topic “largely unexplored” (199). O’Malley highlights the work of Wood as an example of one scholar who has done similar work. O’Malley’s narration of the history of Herrnhut should be read by anyone interested in Wesley, and particularly the impact that this complex community had on his evangelical formation, including how Steinmetz’s concept of “sealing” subsequent to justification was communicated to Wesley via David. Much of the chapter is dedicated to the historical evolution of Pietist communities, their global impact, and the work of David and Zinzendorf.  

Origins provides the student of evangelical history with the actual texts that previously were available only to scholars who read German. For those of us who exclusively read English, we had to trust that Ward’s assertions about the German texts were accurate. But here O’Malley gives us actual texts and we can see the connections clearly. There are some typos that should have been caught before publication, but these are minor. What the book lacks, perhaps, or better yet makes possible for other scholars to engage, are the differences related to sanctification that arise because of the predominantly pneumatological focus of Steinmetz, David, and Fletcher and the Christological focus of Wesley. Additionally, there are distinctions that arise when Wesley’s high church Anglicanism is engaged, in particular his sacramental emphasis and reliance on the means of grace shaped and formed by the Prayer Book tradition. I see this less as a critique of O’Malley’s work than an invitation for others to continue to build on the foundation he has provided. 

What O’Malley has made possible – and this is one of the greatest gifts of the work – is the actual ability to make the comparisons that engage the broader origins of a global revivalist movement. O’Malley has opened a door for scholarship that was previously closed to the vast majority of the scholars in the English-speaking world. For that reason alone he should be commended and The Origin of the Wesleyan Theological Vision widely read. What the book also accomplishes is a dynamic engagement with primary source material and the detailed work of a scholar who has spent decades immersed in the topic. Because of the depth of his knowledge and skill, O’Malley is able to bring the early Pietists to life. He does so with the passion of one who hopes that the contemporary church might also share in that dynamic life.  

Ryan N. Danker is a member of the Firebrand Editorial Board and President of the Charles Wesley Society.